We're going to be attending the international harm reduction conference in Barcelona, Spain from May 11 to May 15.   I've been to one previous international harm reduction conference in Vancouver two years ago.  My partner went to the Vancouver one also, and the year before she attended the conference in Belfast.

We had decided to skip the conference this year because we just didn't think we could raise the money needed to attend.  However, just six weeks prior to the conference, I gave a workshop on organzing user groups at the OHRDP's Annual Conference in Ottawa and after the workshop a participant suggested we email a person with the Ontario's Hepatitis C Secretariat because they had some end of the year funding available.  30 minutes after we sent off our email we received back a reply that we would be each given $4000 grant to attend the Barcelona conference.

We qualified for the drug user organization reduced rate for the conference registration but nonetheless it still costs 759 Euros or $1193 Canadian dollars EACH just to attend the conferenc.    After booking our flights with Air France, and reserving 7 nights double room at Novotel Saint Juan Despi, we were left with $750 each for a per diem expenses.  After converting to Euros it isn't a lot, but its enough.   On top of that, we have received a donation from our local Harm Reduction Task Force in Belleville, Ontario, and some generous personal donations.